You expect your child to have a great time on the playground, but you also expect the playground to be a reasonably safe place for them to play and spend time with their friends. If your child suffers a serious injury on the playground, you may feel let down and betrayed by those who own or maintain the playground—and that's understandable. But can you sue them for costs related to your child's injuries? Well, that depends on a couple of factors.
How badly was your child injured?
When you file a personal injury lawsuit, the goal is to recoup the cost of medical care and lost wages. If your child's medical expenses were just a $50 copay to the emergency room and a few dollars for band-aids, suing the owner of the playground simply won't be worth it. Hiring a lawyer, alone, will cost more than the damages you're able to sue for. Some people assume they can just sue for pain and suffering, but judges often look to medical costs as a way of estimating pain and suffering. If the medical costs were low, then you won't have a good argument as to the pain and suffering your child went through, either.
On the other hand, if your child seriously injured themselves, is missing time at school, and will require ongoing medical care for their playground injury, filing a personal injury case might be worthwhile. The cost of simple medical procedures can add up quickly, and permanent scars—especially those on your child's face—can impact your child for the rest of their life.
How was your child using the equipment?
In order to win a lawsuit against the owner or operator of a playground, you must show that their actions or inactions were responsible for your child's injuries. So if your child's actions were largely the cause of the injury, you may have a hard time arguing your case. This is often better illustrated with examples.
Example 1: Your child was hanging upside-down off the top of the swingset bar and fell down, breaking their femur bone. Since the swingset bar is not intended to be climbed and hung from, you would have a hard time demonstrating that this injury was the playground owner's fault. They did not commit negligence simply by providing a swing set for your child to play on.
Example 2: Your child was swinging on the swing set. The swing's chain broke, causing your child to fall to the ground and break their femur. In this case, you could argue that the playground owner failed to properly maintain the playground, which resulted in the chain breaking, which in turn resulted in the injury.
What act of negligence was committed?
All personal injury cases hinge on the concept of negligence. In a legal sense, negligence is the failure to take reasonable care to prevent injury to another person. If you cannot demonstrate that a playground owner was negligent, you won't win your case. Common ways in which playground owners may be negligent include the following:
There are many other specific circumstances in which negligence may be demonstrated. For example, if the playground owner promised to provide a supervisor for the kids during certain hours, but that person was not present to reprimand kids acting in a certain manner, that could be considered negligence.
As you can see, filing a personal injury lawsuit against the owner of a playground can be very complex! The best way to know if you have a case is to schedule a consultation with a personal injury lawyer in your area, such as those at Deliso & Associates.